Ferrara's 'Piazza Vittorio' shows heart of new Rome

Documentary film tells story of multi-ethnic capital

(ANSA) - Rome, May 28 - American director Abel Ferrara will present his documentary film Piazza Vittorio, which was screened at the 74th Venice Film Festival last September as an out-of-competition selection, in Rome on May 31 at the Apollo 11 cultural centre. The film shows a Rome full of heart, where emigration, whether hated, tolerated, or understood, in the end takes on the capital city's spirit and becomes fully Roman. The film, created with the efforts of executive producer Manfredi Saavedra, takes its title from the eponymous Roman square that has become known as a sort of cultural melting pot. Many of the subjects interviewed in the film reflect this reality, such as an Egyptian butcher who says he feels like a Roman and is proud of it. The opening scene shows an elderly Roman woman speaking in local dialect, shouting to the migrants "you all have to go!", adding "you've ruined Italy". But rising above all are the many voices of the migrants themselves, from Africa, China, South America and various Slavic countries, some of whom have complaints, some of whom wish to stay in Italy, and almost all of whom heap praise on Italian cuisine. The documentary splices in archival film footage from the Luce Institute featuring the square's market when it was an open-air market, as well as appearances from several of the square's residents, including some well-known names such as Italian director Matteo Garrone and American actor Willem Dafoe. Garrone said he has lived there for just over 20 years because "it's a way to live abroad", while Dafoe came to the neighbourhood after marrying Italian director and actress Giada Colagrande. The film's director, Ferrara, said there are "thousands of aspects of Italians and of Rome." "I tell the story of the city that I experience, in the Esquilino neighbourhood, which is at the same time both multicultural and full of contradictions," he said. Piazza Vittorio is produced by Andrea De Liberato's Enjoy Movies and will hit Italian theatres in the fall, distributed by Mariposa Cinematografica. Mariposa will also distribute Ferrara's next work, Alive in France, which tells the story of the director's tour of France.